Employee Contracts, City Hall Expansion And More

BUSY MEETING NEXT WEEK
The Costa Mesa City Council will meet Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at its regularly-scheduled meeting beginning at 5:45 in City Council Chambers - preceded by a short Closed Session in Conference Room 5A.  The agenda for the meeting may be read HERE.

SPENDING YOUR MONEY
There's a lot of interesting stuff happening at this meeting, but I'll begin with a little summary of the Consent Calendar, and, more specifically, Item #3, Warrant 2532, HERE.  I will list some of the items we have already spend money on - things that catch my eye or are otherwise of interest.
FTOG, Inc - $2,205.00 - Interim Buyer, 2/2-2/13/15
G4S Secure Solutions, Inc - $60,779.40 - Jail Services, 12/29/14 - 1/26/15
Jones & Mayer - $156,143.96 - Legal Services (45 line items)
City of Mission Viejo - $6,240.00 - IT Staffing Svcs, January, 2015
Jones Day - $11,756.25 - Legal Services, CMCEA, Nov. 2014
Liebert Cassidy Whitmore - $11,738.81 - Legal, various Negot. etc.
National Data & Surveying Services - $5,370.00 - Data Collection Services
Orange County Conservation Corps - $2,016.00 - Tumbleweed Removal, etc.
Scientia Consulting Group, Inc. - $12,706.50 - IT Consultant, Dec and January
State of California Dept. of Justice - $11,901.00 - Fingerprint apps
City of Huntington Beach - $18,200.00 - Helicopter Svcs, 1/15
Lilly Planning Group - $26,050.00 - Planning Consultant Services 1/15
Enterprise Counsel Group - $1,259.15 - Legal, Succ. Agncy, Nov & Dec.
FTOG Inc - $2,160.00 - Interim Buyer, 2/16-2/27/15
Government Staffing Services, Inc. - $8,185.50 - Temp svcs, various
Keyser Marston Assoc. - $7,670.00 - Consulting Svcs
Leibert Cassidy Whitmore - $9,492.50 - Legal, Personnel Matter
Scientia Consulting Group, Inc. - $6,385.50 - IT Consultant, 1/25-2/7/15
Westminster Press, Inc. - $2,230.00 - I405 Mailer/Printing

THE BUCKS JUST KEEP ON FLOWING OUT
So, on THIS Warrant we paid one outfit more than $4,400 for an Interim Buyer; more than $190,000 for legal services; more than $25,000 for IT consulting and more than $60,000 to run the jail.  Thought you should know.

NEGOTIATORS
Also on the Consent Calendar - Item #13 of 14, HERE, is the appointment of City Negotiators for the Meet and Confer process with the Costa Mesa City Employees Association (CMCEA) for the process that begins in June.  The staff recommends that Assistant CEO Tamara Letourneau and Lawyer Laura Kalty be appointed.  It will be interesting to see just how much more blood they can squeeze from the turnip - the contract the CMCEA approved took them back to the dark ages.  Just FYI.

DING!  ROUND TWO!
Public Hearing #1, HERE, is the second public hearing on the side letter with the Costa Mesa Police Management Association (CMPMA).  You will recall at the first reading two weeks ago Gary Monahan violated the Brown Act by letting the cat out of the bag regarding the CMPOA negotiations, which caused a shouting match between Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Councilwoman Katrina Foley and a heated discussion (kindest way to put it) between Foley and contract City Attorney Tom Duarte during a hastily-called break.  I suspect this will go smoothly this time.  As a sidebar, in the wake of Monahan's gaffe, the CMPOA has released details of the negotiations of their contract.

APPEALING GANAHL MOVE
Public Hearing #2, HERE,  is the appeal of the Planning Commission approval of the application by Ganahl Lumber to move their operations to a site adjacent to their current store on Bristol Street.  The appellants are Joseph E. Miller (shown here) and Alison Miller and their complaint is listed in the staff report.  This presentation took a couple hours before the Planning Commission.  I have NO idea how long this appeal take, but it could be even longer!  Ugh!

A SURVEY IS BURIED IN THERE SOMEWHERE
New Business #1, HERE, is the Professional Services Agreement with RJM Design Group for the update of the Open Space Master Plan of Parks and Recreation.  It is of interest that this item also includes a request from staff for direction from the City Council as to the activities of the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee, which is scheduled to hear the final items on their task list on April 1st and make recommendations to the Parks and Recreation Commission shortly thereafter.  The way I read the staff report, it looks like they want to put the committee on hiatus until this project is completed.  That makes NO sense to me.  This group was tasked more than 20 months ago to do what they've been doing... assessing the existing uses of Fairview Park in a calm, methodical manner and have almost completed that assignment.  There was NO requirement for a community-wide survey - which will be included with the consultants task - so the two, while related, are not intertwined.  The FPCAC should be permitted to complete it's task, write it's recommendations to the Parks and Recreation Commission, who can then choose to do something with it, or wait until the consultant's task is finished, then blend the results.

USING CITY HALL SPACE BETTER
The final item on the agenda, New Business #2, HERE, is the request for authorization for the construction of a community room and outdoor meeting space and remodel of the employee lounge in City Hall.  This project, which asks for over $1 million to complete ( the $992,000 ratchet's up to $1.2 million) would convert the old  almost 1700 square foot print shop adjacent to Conference Room 1A into a community room, complete with full audio-visual and broadcast capabilities.  Right now 1A can record meetings, but cannot broadcast from there.  It would also enhance the existing "lounge" - that cramped, dated break room nearby.  It also includes plans for an outdoor meeting area - a patio where grass now exists - with seating for meetings and/or lunch spaces for employees.

NEED MORE FLEXIBILITY
I'm told that the new "community room" will not be divisible, like rooms at the Neighborhood Community Center.  That's too bad, since that feature makes the NCC much more usable for smaller groups.  With 1675 square feet to work with, having flexibility in the configuration of this new facility would make it much more usable - particularly since plans for the NCC/Library project will shut down that facility for months - probably a year - during which groups will be scrambling for meeting space.

3 MILLION BUCKS, GIVE OR TAKE!
When the dust settles, so to speak, the three projects PLUS the previously-approved upgrade of the City Council Chambers and the current audio-visual/broadcast infrastructure (for $1.6 million) would come to right at $3 million!  That's OK, though... all these improvements are necessary and long, long, long overdue. Our award-winning team of Dane Bora and Brad Long have been pulling rabbits out of the hat for far too long with the crappy infrastructure.

OK!
In my view, this project should be approved.  They plan to fund the three projects with 2014/2015 salary savings of $1,202,000 - which very likely comes directly from the Police Department budgeted numbers, since we've been unable to fill slots as fast as the current budget anticipated. 

 TWO STAGES...
And, this project should be done in two stages.  The first - this project, which results in a new meeting room and enhanced Conference Room 1A plus the new "lounge" and outside space, can be accomplished without disturbing meetings and other activities in the council chambers.  Once it is finished and operational, the large council chambers project can be tackled, with meetings shifted to the new meeting room temporarily instead of having to locate facilities elsewhere around town for City Council, Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission meetings .

GUESSIN' 11 P.M....
The end of the meeting will include overflow public commenters and items pulled from the Consent Calendar... I'm thinking we're out of there before 11 p.m.

Survey Rejected, Lloyd Loved, Foley Furious

A MEMORABLE MEETING, FOR SURE
Well, now... that was fun!  Yes, sir, the Costa Mesa City Council meeting Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was one for the old memory book.  So much happened that I almost don't know where to begin... almost.

HEADING FOR DAWN...
The meeting ran until 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, so I'm going to give you just a little shorter version so I can get to bed before dawn... another busy day is ahead.

TCA DOING BETTER
The meeting began with a report from the Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA), outlining it's recovery from the fiscal abyss and showing the progress being made.  It was good news.  You can read their information on the two images below.   Click on them to make them bigger.

HANK LLOYD
Public Comments was VERY interesting.  Of the twenty people who spoke between 5:50 and 6:45, nearly one third of them addressed the possibility of Hank Lloyd leaving the Costa Mesa Tennis Club, including Lloyd, himself.  In a nutshell, a Request For Proposals for the operation of the Tennis Center was issued and Lloyd - who has operated it for 17 years with great success, putting Costa Mesa on the Tennis Map - found the changes in the terms too backbreaking to attempt to manage.  A half-dozen folks spoke on his behalf and at least that many more came to the meeting in support of Lloyd.  The upshot was that the council directed staff to look into the situation surrounding the very significant increase in costs to Lloyd - they involved passing through charges for electricity and water that had not been part of the arrangement in the past. 

PUBLIC COMMENT POTPOURRI
Other speakers addressed group homes; inconsistent planning rules; insufficient data on the Consolidated Plan survey; lack of a Economic Development Plan; the pending demolition of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn and the impact on residents; poor condition of baseball fields; the departure of Communication Director Bill Lobdell to the Irvine Company; the shortage of police and public records requests.

FOLEY ON MORALES AND MORE
During Council Member Comments, Katrina Foley asked for the meeting to be adjourned in memory of Crystal Morales, daughter of CMPD Detective Jose Morales, who tragically died in a traffic accident last week.  She also spoke of the Young Kim press conference on I-405 Toll Roads earlier in the day; the Hank Lloyd RFP issue; an electronic waste collection at Costa Mesa High School from 10:00 to 2:00; Fire Department staffing; her previous request for a council goal-setting meeting and more.

GENIS ON LLOYD AND SEGERSTROM
Sandra Genis also addressed the Tennis Center issue and two items on the Consent Calendar.  She asked for the meeting to be adjourned in honor of Henry Segerstrom, the visionary creator of South Coast Plaza, who died recently at age 91.  She also mentioned the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

MONAHAN SPEAKS!
Gary Monahan actually had something to say at this meeting - he pointed it out to me for all to hear...  He spoke of Little League and AYSO openings and, in response to an earlier speaker's concern about the Conference and Visitor Bureau funding, misspoke about the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), stating it was voluntary.  He's wrong... a segment of the TOT - 3% - is voluntary for eleven (11) hotels in town.  The city receives 11% from those hotels - it's 8% for all others - then returns the 3% to the Conference and Visitors Bureau for business development purposes.  He also mentioned that Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce President Ed Fawcett will soon retire and an announcement will be made about his party.  He asked CEO Tom Hatch about Talbert Park, and any plans for Costa Mesa to take it over.  He also addressed the Hank Lloyd situation.  As it turned out, he should have not said another word.  More on that in a minute.

RIGHEIMER ON COPS
Jim Righeimer also addressed the Hank Lloyd situation, kind of scolding Lloyd for not speaking up sooner - the council received his letter Tuesday.  He addressed the Young Kim press conference - he did not attend.  He also mentioned the meeting tonight, Wednesday, at College Park Elementary where several members of the city council and staff will discuss sober living homes and the current status of policing.   Addressing the latter, he responded to Jay Humphrey's question about Righeimer and Mensinger "pulling out all the stops" to get the CMPD staffed up.  He mentioned a letter the council received from the CMPD, which is now on the City Website, HERE.  Hatch later addressed this memo, too.  Review the letter for yourself and you will find a schedule - "glide path" as Righeimer referred to it - that theoretically takes the CMPD from the current strength of 108 officers to 144 by the end of 2016.

MENSINGER ON SEGERSTROM
Steve Mensinger talked about his history with Henry Segerstrom - he attended his service over the weekend.  Apparently his Aunt Peggy - who was the mayor of Modesto - went to Stanford with Segerstrom.  He asked Hatch to figure out a way for the City to honor Segerstrom.  He mentioned that he will be out of town for the long weekend ahead, going with Hatch to Washington, D.C. for the mayor's conference.  He discussed the group home issue brought up by resident Barry Fisher, and mentioned Hank Lloyd, too.  He also spoke of the press conference earlier in the day, which he did attend.

HATCH - COPS STAFFING AND MORE
Hatch took his turn and made a lengthy presentation.  He echoed what is in that CMPD report mentioned above, and expanded on the fact that we are hiring excellent recruits.  We've had the top recruit in the past two classes.  Foley wondered what we were doing about attracting lateral transfers from other jurisdictions because all Hatch was talking about was new recruits, none of which would be ready to be functioning on his own for nearly two years.  She wondered what we are doing to retain cops.  Hatch addressed the group home meeting today, and spoke about the staffing of Code Enforcement.  He addressed the Tennis Center issue and reminded the council that they just cannot turn off the RFP process because they've had several people respond to it now.  He will work with the City Attorney on the issue

Four items were pulled from the Consent Calendar for later discussion.

MONAHAN GAFFE, FOLEY AND RIGHEIMER SCRUM
Then the fun began... At 7:47 p.m. Lawyer and negotiator Laura Kalty addressed Public Hearing #1, the extension of the side letter between the City and the Costa Mesa Police Management Association (CMPMA).  This should have been a short, sweet discussion, but the wheels came flying off.  During the discussion Monahan let slip information about negotiations with the Costa Mesa Police Officers Association (CMPOA) that could have only come from information he gathered in a Closed Session negotiating session and Foley jumped right on it.  Trust me when I tell you that finding that section of the video tape is going to be worth your time!  At one point things got so heated that Mensinger actually pounded his gavel on the dais and demanded order be restored.  Foley and Righeimer got into a shouting match, exacerbated by her challenge of a legal opinion provided by City Attorney Tom Duarte.  Foley pointed out what she referred to as a manipulation of the process where Righeimer and Mensinger are not supposed to be privy to ANY part of the negotiations between the City and the Costa Mesa Police Association because they are involved in a lawsuit with the association.  Foley and Righeimer yelled back and forth at each other and Mensinger finally called a 5 minute break.  During that time Foley and Duarte were at the coffee cranny at the rear of the dais and she could be heard screaming at him. 

PUBLIC CONCERNS
When they returned four members of the public addressed this issue.  Gene Hutchins, once again, gave his rote rant about unfunded pensions.  That issue seems to be like a chunk of spinach he cannot remove from his teeth.  Tamar Goldmann expressed concern about hiring laterals because of the hostility between Righeimer, Mensinger and the CMPD.  Jay Humphrey expressed consternation at the outburst, and the reason for it.  He cautioned council members - he's been there - to just hold their tongues on the dais.  Anna Vrska observed that she has experienced some shoddy legal work via Jones & Mayer herself, amplifying what Foley had complained about earlier.

FOLEY CONCERNED ABOUT LEGAL OPINION
Foley then apologized for her passion on the issue.  She is concerned about the confidentiality of the Closed Session and was concerned about liability the City might have as a result of Monahan's gaffe.  She expressed concern that the City Attorney was turning a blind eye to the issue, then said there is NOTHING we can do about it.  She said it degrades the process and degrades good faith.  She told Hatch she wanted an independent legal analysis of Monahan's comment.

CONCERN ABOUT WAIVING CONFIDENTIALITY
Genis expressed concern that if, as Duarte had said earlier, Monahan's comment effectively waives the City's confidentiality, she didn't want him waiving HER confidentiality.  Whew!  This was one for the ages!  All that ended at 8:25 and we had four more hours to go!  Ugh!

SMALL LOT ORDINANCE CHANGES APPROVED
Public Hearing #2 was the amendment to the Small Lot Ordinance.  Several speakers expressed concern that these modifications were just more developer giveaways.  I'm giving you the short version.  After a 30 minute discussion during which the parking changes were the primary focus, the council gave first reading to the changes on a 3-2 vote - Genis and Foley voted no.

SENIOR COMMISSION UP TO SEVEN
Old Business #1, the expansion of the Senior Commission from five members to seven, took about two minutes and passed, 5-0.

FINANCIAL AND BUDGET POLICIES APPROVED
We then launched off into the three Finance-related issues, guided by Interim Finance Director Steve Dunivent.  The first was the Financial and Budget Policies, which passed, 4-1, with Genis voting no because of a language issue.

GENERAL FUND RESERVE STUDY
The next was the discussion of the General Fund Reserves Study.  Following a 45 minute discussion - during which Foley and Righeimer agreed that the staff report was too conservative - the council passed the plan, 4-1, with Monahan voting no.  The staff report was modified to make the Reserves goal $55 million,  and the annual contribution to the Reserves $1.5 million, part of which would be the annual repayment of money the State stole from us.  That should be around $700,000 each year for the next 10 years or so.  The staff report wanted just over $63 million, with up to $2 million annually going toward the reserves.  Keep in mind that our reserves were over $73 million before the recession the end of the last decade.

BUDGET REVIEW
The third item was the Mid-Year Budget Review.  Among the suggestions by speakers were an accelerated payment of the Fire Side Fund.  One speaker was concerned about where the legal costs were paid from, since the Self Insurance fund normally associated with it has been depleted to just about $2 million from $22 just a few years ago.  Nobody seemed particularly concerned about that.  The council passed the staff report, 4-1, with Genis voting no.

NO SEPARATE SURVEY
Finally, at 10:45 and without a break, we launched off into Mensinger's request for a Fairview Park Use Survey. After a 30 minute discussion - during which Righeimer, in particular, showed impatience with the process, stating that he "just wanted to get it behind us" - the first of sixteen (16) members of the public stepped up to address this issue.  Even Hutchins rejected the survey idea - but he took a completely out of context jab at Foley for her vote on the Police Pensions half a decade ago.  Of those, only the final speaker - Mensinger friend, Chuck Perry - said anything even remotely in support of Mensinger's scheme.  All the others, in one way or the other, rejected the need for the survey.  Eventually, at 12:15 a.m., the council voted 5-0 to NOT conduct a separate survey, but fold some Fairview Park-specific questions into the scope of work for the consultant that will soon be retained to facilitate the update of the Master Plan of Parks and Open Spaces.  The council will consider that contract at it's next meeting on March 17th.  So, Steve didn't get his survey

MORE MARATHON INFO REQUESTED

The council moved quickly through the "pulled" Consent Calendar items until they got to #8, the Orange County Marathon issue.  Righeimer excused himself and left the auditorium because "Scott Baugh is the Chairman  and I don't want to hear about it."  It turns out, based on the testimony by Gary Kucher, who runs the Marathon, that Baugh is NOT the chairman of anything.  He is a member of the OC Marathon Foundation Board.  Foley wanted to know specifics about the costs to the city for supporting the marathon - specifically, the costs and reimbursement for the CMPD and CMFD.  During the conversation it came out that the  charges had been reduced a couple years ago, apparently because Costa Mesa charged more than other cities.  The discussion took about 30 minutes, but they finally passed the item, 4-0, with Righeimer out of the room and we finally adjourned at 12:45 a.m.! Arrgghh!

Foley Challenges Mensinger/Righeimer Participation

POLICE ASSOCIATIONS NEGOTIATIONS INVOLVED
Last Tuesday afternoon there was a Special Closed Session of the Costa Mesa City Council in which negotiations of the contracts for the Costa Mesa Police Management Association (CMPMA) and the Costa Mesa Police Officers Association (CMPOA) were to be discussed. 

NORMALLY A BRIEF BEGINNING
Under normal circumstances the council would meet briefly in Council Chambers, take role, the item would be "read into the record" and they would then adjourn to the conference room in the 5th floor bunker, er, Executive Offices.  That usually takes just about as long as it took you to read this far.

NOT LAST WEEK!
Last Tuesday, though, that process took 19 minutes and resulted in a piece of video that you really MUST watch.  You can view it HERE.

FOLEY - MAYOR AND PRO TEM ARE "CONFLICTED"
Both Mayor Steve Mensinger and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer were late for the meeting.  Councilman Gary Monahan - wearing a sun visor advertising his pub, apparently to protect him from the glare of the hot lights - was in charge as they began the process.  Councilwoman Katrina Foley - a lawyer - took exception to the mayor and mayor pro tem being permitted to participate in the negotiations for the CMPMA because the terms of that contract are identical to that of the CMPOA and members of the CMPMA had been members of the CMPOA, and the mayor and mayor pro tem are prohibited from negotiating on that one because of their civil suit against the men and women of the CMPD.

ATTORNEY LETTER
Sandra Genis referred to a letter from a law firm, apparently representing one of the associations, in which they asked for Mensinger and Righeimer to be barred from participating in the CMPMA negotiation discussions.

DUARTE SAYS NO...
City Attorney Tom Duarte told the council he had considered the issue and he and his staff had determined that both men are NOT conflicted out of the CMPMA negotiations.

WATCH PATIENTLY
I'm not going to paraphrase the video.  The quality of the video is quite bad - the video is halting and, in the beginning, the audio is not very good, either.  Stick with it and just listen to the dialogue.  At one point, once Righeimer and Mensinger finally showed up, you'll hear Righeimer call the president of the CMPOA a liar - stating flat out that he lied to the Grand Jury.  I found that curious, since Grand Jury testimony is supposed to be confidential.

IT'S WORTH THE TIME
Viewing this video, with all it's technical deficiencies, will be a worthwhile expenditure of your time.  It demonstrates the contentiousness of the relationship between the top two elected officials in the city and the men and women hired to protect and serve us.  It also demonstrates the value of Katrina Foley on the dais.  She and Genis will form a team to be reckoned-with in the months to come, even though they certainly will not agree on every issue.  Both are well-educated, high-achievers in their chosen professions and clearly the two smartest people on the dais.  The seating arrangement has them at opposite ends of the dais, so I suspect watching them in action will sometimes be akin to watching a fast-paced tennis match.  It certainly will be worth the price of admission.

Busy - Possibly Explosive - Council Meeting Tuesday

CONTROVERSIAL ITEMS
The Costa Mesa City Council will hold its first council meeting of the new fiscal year on Tuesday, July 1, 2014 and this one promises to be "special" in many ways.  First, the Closed Session that precedes the regular meeting has a long agenda so it begins at 3:30 p.m.!  The regular meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00 in City Council Chambers starting at 6:00 p.m.  The agenda report is HERE.

FREE SPEECH RULES
I've previously written about the onerous change planned late in the meeting in which it will be proposed to crush opposing viewpoints by speakers before the City Council, HERE.  One thing I neglected to mention in the proposed ordinance, HERE, in my last post was the element included in Section c., 1.  During the discussion of "Enforcement", beginning on page 2 and continuing to page 3, mention is made of "warnings" given to violators of the policy before further action is taken.  However, in the second paragraph the discussion turns to examples of when a warning shall not be necessary and includes this final sentence: A warning shall also not be necessary when an individual violates the rules of conduct more than once during a council meeting, or continuously violates the rules of conduct council meeting after council meeting.  I read that to mean that if you violate ANY of the eleven (11) in more than one meeting - yell in one, speak without being recognized by the presiding officer in another and continue to speak after the allotted time has expired in another, a person could - without any warning - be subjected to the sanctions listed further in the ordinance.

 THE CONSENT CALENDAR
As always, the Consent Calendar is packed with issues that some might wish to have pulled and voted upon separately.  Mayor Jim Righeimer always reminds council members that he would prefer them to NOT pull items, but to discuss them during Council Member comments.  That accomplishes a couple things.  1) It keeps the item from being "trailed" to the end of the meeting - one of his draconian practices that is used to stifle public discussion of issues. 2)  It forces a member of the public to pull the item and stick around to the wee hours of the next day, in many cases, to ask questions or offer comments.

THE WARRANT
Item #3 is Warrant 2518, HERE, which is packed with interesting information.  I'll just list a few of the items you may find illuminating.
Civil Source - $28,215.00 - Design Alleys, Apr. 14 and $4,255.00 - Water Quality/Storm Drain
Costa Mesa Conference & Visitor Bureau - $222,105.09 - BIA Receipts for March, 2014
Jones Day - $54,821.25 - CMCEA, March and April
Enterprise Counsel Group - $9,911/10 - Successor Agency DOF, Apr. 2014
FTOG, Inc. - $2,115.00 - Interim Buyer, 5/26 - 6/6
Government Staffing Services - $3,410.00 - Temp Svcs Proj Mgr.
Scientia Consulting Group, Inc - $3,800.00 - IT Tech Consultant 5/4-5/10
Jones & Mayer - $166,585.92 - various listed services
Interwest Consulting Group, Inc. - $9,990.50 - Bldg Inspection Svcs, Apr. 2014
Liebert Cassidy Whitmore - $6,480.00 - PD and CMCEA Negotiations

Once more, we racked up more than $235,000 in legal fees for one month.  Yikes!

 SALARY CHANGES FOR CMPD AND CMPMA 

Item #4  fulfills the contractual obligation the City has with the Police Association and the Police Management Association for a 4% increase if certain fiscal milestones are met, HERE.  They were met, so the increases kick in.

PUBLIC SAFETY SOFTWARE
Item #5, HERE, is the continuation of a software maintenance and services agreement for $127,334 Public Safety software. 

PROJECT MGT/SERVICES CONTRACT EXTENSION
Item #7, HERE, is a change order for the contract with Civil Source for Project/Construction Management and Public Works Inspection services on as-needed bases due to the volume of projects and diminished staff - to the tune of $600,000.

ARLINGTON AVE. BIOSWALE
Item #8, HERE, is for engineering services of $208,863.00 for the design of the Arlington Avenue Bioswale and Dry Weather Diversion Project.

SUNFLOWER AND ANTON
Item #9, HERE, is for construction at the intersection of Sunflower and Anton for $238,823.00

55 GATEWAY AND MAINTENANCE PROJECT
Item #10, HERE, if the Agreement for Maintenance of the proposed Gateway Monument Sign and Landscape Maintenance Agreement with CalTrans.

HARBOR AND ADAMS IMPROVEMENT INCREASE
Item #11, HERE, is for an increase of $478,00 in the Harbor and Adams Improvement Project and a budget adjustment of $100,000.

CONVERTING PRINT SHOP TO MEETING ROOM
Item #13, HERE, is to increase the scope of the original contract for upgrading the audio/visual and broadcasting equipment to include conversion of the former print shop into a community meeting room to make up for probable loss of meeting space with the planned re-use of the Neighborhood Community Center as a library.

CIVIC CENTER BARRIO HOUSING CORPORATION
Item #14, HERE, is a Cooperation Agreement much too complicated to describe briefly here.  Read the staff report.

HARBOR SOARING SOCIETY AGREEMENT RENEWAL
There are no Public Hearings scheduled, nor is there any Old Business.  New Business #1 is the Renewal of the User Agreement with the Harbor Soaring Society, HERE.  This item has been reviewed with the Fairview Park Citizen Advisory Committee and the Parks and Recreation Commission and the staff recommends approval of a 5-year renewal with some terms amended.

FIELD USE AND ALLOCATION
New Business #2, HERE, is the Athletic Field Use and Allocation Policy Information and Recommendations.  Extensive modifications are being recommended, including the expansion of Lighted Fields at Back Bay School, Kaiser School, Lindbergh Field and Woodland School.  Changes are also being recommended for "Resident Status", "Priority Use Classifications", "Group 3 Organizations", "Payment of Fees", "Specific Field Use"and the "Banner Policy".

MORE SECURITY CAMERAS
New Business Item #3, HERE, is the Authorization of Security Cameras at the City Corporation Yard, Key Access Points Along the Joanne Bike Trail, Exterior Areas Around the Senior Center, the Volcom Skate Park and locations in Fairview Park.

REWARDS TO INCLUDE PRIVATE PROPERTY
New Business #4, HERE,  is the replacement of Municipal Codes section 11-15 relating to rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons vandalizing property.  It changes the language to include PRIVATE property.  Read the Redline version of the new ordinance HERE. 

FREE SPEECH QUASHING
New Business #5, HERE, is the new ordinance about conduct while addressing the city council, which I mentioned previously.

THE LATEST CHARTER SCHEME
Finally, at the very tail end of the meeting, is New Business Item #6, the consideration of placement of a proposed Charter on the ballot in November, plus other related resolutions, HERE.   You can read the entire proposed Charter HERE and some Public Communications on the subject HERE.
Those of you who are regular readers already know I'm against this Charter.  Less than two years ago the voters of this city resoundingly rejected a similar document, 60%-40%.  There is nothing in this "new" document that makes it more acceptable than Jim Righeimer's Charter in 2012.  This document - prepared by a committee he personally stacked in his favor - is just another example of Righeimer's apparent belief that he knows what is best for the City regardless what the voters think, so he's going to attempt to steamroll this through - again.  That being said, I expect this will be placed on the ballot by a 3-2 vote, with Sandra Genis and Wendy Leece correctly voting NO.  That's fine - if it ends up on the ballot in the form proposed it will be just that much easier to defeat.  The voters  two years ago recognized the danger of placing unbridled power in the hands of the current majority and events since then have only further demonstrated that danger of abuse.


COULD BE ANOTHER LONG ONE...
It's possible this could be another long, long meeting.  I'm projecting it running until at least 11:00 p.m.  Pack a lunch...